A Tree Telling of Orpheus

Gloria Steinem is someone I would never have read about, in my old life. What a loss that would have been!  Her book

Gloria Steinem: My Life on the Road

Tells about some of her formative influences:

-Her parents were from different backgrounds (Protestant, Jewish).

-Her mother was a former journalist who lost her way and became an invalid for most of Gloria’s life. 

-Her father was a traveler with grand dreams, but an inability to make ends meet. He was mostly absent from the time she was 8. 
I was most struck by Gloria’s lack of self-pity and how she used her circumstances to learn. 

She gives attention to her willingness to be changed by her travels and how her decisions, across the years, not to drive had a surprising impact on her work. 
She has a multi-dimensional, inclusive way of thinking, which surprised and challenged me. 

One of the many things I appreciate about this book is her reference to one of my favorite books, A Room of One’s Own, by Vitginia Woolf.

She filled in some very important history that was neglected in my education and made me think, once again, about the power of thinking together:
“When humans are ranked, instead of linked, everyone loses. “

By Khaled Hosseini

What can I say? Family, war and its democratizing effects, on the one hand, the opportunities for humans lacking in principles to flourish, on the other. Connections, empathy for people I could have maintained as my enemies and some seriously poetic and finely-intertwined stories within a greater story. One of the best reads of the last year.

I was not disappointed by one of my favorite authors. He tells a story for an audience that most needs to hear it.

A conversation with verse

the library